Cuz I told you so.

[Wyatt 13]

Hey guys, I don't know this is the right place to share this one. My family is Mormon and we are very active in our church. The thing is we have some teen reunions on week-ends and the leader is an older guy he is 17 y.o he is like a counselor for boys, so I asked him why masturbation is a sin for Mormon people, and he just said avoid touching yourself that way, is not correct blah blah blah and then I went bored I replied Sean but still I don't understand why is so bad masturbation for our religion, and then he replied, I'm older than you and I told you so. I don't masturbate is a sin, don't do it. To be honest, this is not an answer. This guy Sean maybe is not the right guy to be in our teen meetings. I think is totally normal to do it. Of course I cant talk to my Dad about this stuff. Today I have another bored reunion with the guys at church, I'm gonna keep my opinion to myself. What do you think is masturbation a sin?

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Honestly, I think that's a question without an answer. It all depends on your interpretation of the Bible.

I'm Catholic, but I'd never talk to a priest or whatever about what to I do with myself and my body. Masturbation is perfectly natural, and pretty much everyone has done it at one point or another.

[NikosamA98]

My mom studies the bible with the Jehovah's whiteness and they say masturbation is bad because you're wasting life and the only one who can decide what to do with life is god. That's the same reason why the church didn't approve the condom since its creation and they dont support clonation, mother cells research or "playing" with the DNA.

[nklarke]

Hey guys, I don't know this is the right place to share this one. My family is Mormon and we are very active in our church. The thing is we have some teen reunions on week-ends and the leader is an older guy he is 17 y.o he is like a counselor for boys, so I asked him why masturbation is a sin for Mormon people, and he just said avoid touching yourself that way, is not correct blah blah blah and then I went bored I replied Sean but still I don't understand why is so bad masturbation for our religion, and then he replied, I'm older than you and I told you so. I don't masturbate is a sin, don't do it. To be honest, this is not an answer. This guy Sean maybe is not the right guy to be in our teen meetings. I think is totally normal to do it. Of course I cant talk to my Dad about this stuff. Today I have another bored reunion with the guys at church, I'm gonna keep my opinion to myself. What do you think is masturbation a sin?

Hi,

I'm not a mormon but to answer your question. The background of the masturbation prohibition is found in Gen. 38:8-10 "8.So Judah said to Onan, "Come to your brother's wife and perform the rite of the levirate, and raise up progeny for your brother.
9. Now Onan knew that the progeny would not be his, and it came about, when he came to his brother's wife, he wasted [his semen] on the ground, in order not to give seed to his brother.
10. Now what he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord, and He put him to death also."

As you have read, in fact the situation there was a man who didn't come in the vagina, he come on the ground, but the sin was "wasting his semen" so the parallel is with the masturbation, when you "waste" your semen that should be used to procreate.

I'm not giving an opinion, saying if masturbation is ok or not, just answering your question.

[Joey.]

Theres nothing wrong with masterbation,
They will teach you in health class, that it's completely
normal to do so.. your experimenting.

I'm my opinion,
People take religion too seriously.
When they base their life around that kind of
stuff, it frustrates me, because you could be
putting your time into more suitable and helpful things
than worrying about what you can or can't do.

[Alex_3869]

This whole masturbation is a sin thing is really starting to tick me off. I think that if the hormones are raging, then why not relieve them? I mean, for real, if you don't do it then, you are just going to have a wet dream, and that's an even stickier mess to get out of. It is not wrong, or a sin to masturbate. The people who are interpreting the bible are putting stuff in there that wasn't really intended to come across as.

[ImCoolBeans]

I'm not religious, so I'm not really worried about what is a sin and what isn't a sin. However, I am concerned with what I do in regard to other people and society, and as far as I can tell masturbation doesn't hurt anybody... Nothing wrong with it.

[Living For Love]

Hi,

I'm not a mormon but to answer your question. The background of the masturbation prohibition is found in Gen. 38:8-10 "8.So Judah said to Onan, "Come to your brother's wife and perform the rite of the levirate, and raise up progeny for your brother.
9. Now Onan knew that the progeny would not be his, and it came about, when he came to his brother's wife, he wasted [his semen] on the ground, in order not to give seed to his brother.
10. Now what he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord, and He put him to death also."

As you have read, in fact the situation there was a man who didn't come in the vagina, he come on the ground, but the sin was "wasting his semen" so the parallel is with the masturbation, when you "waste" your semen that should be used to procreate.

I'm not giving an opinion, saying if masturbation is ok or not, just answering your question.

As a Chrisitian, this is the exact part of the Bible that refers to masturbation or a similar act, and I'm happy that someone posted it here. It's indeed hard to tell whether is it considered a sin or not. Tobacco and drugs, for example, are never mentioned in the Bible, but we can consider their use to be a sin because they harm our bodies, which are the temple of God and the Holy Ghost. God doesn't live anymore in men-made buildings, but inside our hearts. However, if tobacco or drugs use are a sin, is consuming certain medicine and pills also a sin? Because they are also drugs, nevertheless, the difference is that some people really need to take those meds in order to keep living.

I once asked one of the pastors of my church if eating food that contains animal blood is a sin or not. He was not sure, so he searched the Bible and the next day he told me that he found out it wasn't, but he also told me that, whenever we want to know if something is a sin or not, and we can't find anything in the Bible about it, we should ask ourselves: "Is this a sin in my opinion? Will I regret this in any way in the futute? Does my conscience tells me to do it or not to?"

I guess it all depends on our intentions, and with so many Christian-based religions out there, with diferent opinions and principles, it makes it even harder to reach a consensus. Masturbation can be considered a sin because it's something we do to achieve sexual pleasure, but on the other hand we're not harming our body or anyone else, and it's something we can't really control maybe because of our hormone system.

[Unsolvedmind]

This is just my opinion but he cant tell you not to masturbate he is not the boss of you, I know your religious but its your option

[Elysium]

I'm not religious at all, but I don't see what's wrong with masturbation, even according to the Bible's reasoning. If you don't think anybody can come up with a legitimate reason (that makes sense to you) for abstaining from masturbation, then don't, but in that community, I'd keep it to yourself. Besides, nobody can watch you 24/7; what you do in your private moments is your business.

From a non-religious perspective, I have a question. If the reason it's a sin is that it's "wasting life," is female masturbation still disallowed, since the female orgasm appears to have little to nothing to do with procreation? If female masturbation is still a sin, why?

[nklarke]

From a non-religious perspective, I have a question. If the reason it's a sin is that it's "wasting life," is female masturbation still disallowed, since the female orgasm appears to have little to nothing to do with procreation? If female masturbation is still a sin, why?

I'm Jewish and strictly speaking, not, female masturbation is not a sin as there isn't "wasting life".

However, most Judeo-Christian religions will consider it a sin because they try to reduce the pleasure and in general, because all related with sex is seen as something dirty.

[elmoc]

Hi Wyatt,

Onan was a grown man, capable of raising children. You are not. I think people use that Bible verse out of context. I also think that everyone that says 'don't masturbate' did it themselves! If you are only supposed to spill your seed into a woman, then why did God make us have Wet Dreams? That semen certainly doesn't go into a vagina!

IMHO, God gave us these bodies & these hormones that rage inside of us. It would be irresponsible for someone younger than 18 to spill their seed into a woman to make a baby. God made us with plenty of semen. I am a Christian, and I think that God meant for me to enjoy this body that he gave me, as long as I do so in privacy, & don't let ejaculation be my only focus in life.

Our bodies get erections & have wet dreams as we make the transition from boys to men. I think we should not EJ into a woman, without a condom, until we are mature & responsible enough to father a child. I don't think God gave us the wonderful gift of orgasms, without expecting us to enjoy them in a respnsible manner.

[sqishy]

I'm not religious, so I'm not really worried about what is a sin and what isn't a sin. However, I am concerned with what I do in regard to other people and society, and as far as I can tell masturbation doesn't hurt anybody... Nothing wrong with it.

Agree.

[CharlieHorse]

I think that you'll find that a lot of religious interpretation has to be blindly accepted "because they told you so".
It's your choice to accept it. Do you want to be controlled and manipulated? Or do you want to live your own life?

[darthearth]

To me "sin" is only transgressing the commandments of loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. There is no sin except this. So no, I don't believe masturbating is a sin, but you are part of a very specific religion that teaches that it is. The Biblical basis is the story of Onan like said above but also it is based in the general condemnation of sexual lust, but read the story objectively and it is talking about wasting seed that the people of that time thought led directly to a child (back then, they did not know about the woman's egg, they thought the woman just nurtured the "seed"). The story was written in ignorance as much of the rest of the Bible was, so I don't think the condemnation based on Onan's story is valid at all. There is more of a Biblical case as far as sexual lust goes, but I think as someone above said that God created us with sexual lust and intended for us to have it, the point of the new testament sayings on lust I think is to remind one that Christ is the most important thing, not fleshly desire (but this desire is not bad and having sex isn't bad). But I'm what is called a "liberal" Christian, the Mormon church wouldn't approve of me.

[Luminous]

It's 'wasting life', but you're just going to make more. He cannot tell you what to do with your body in private, so if you want to masturbate, that is your choice.

[othees]

It seems natural so might as well do it privately

[Lil.k8]

masturbation in private is extremely normal everyone across the planet does but if your worried talk to a church head for a better explination of the reasons

[steellord321]

Had a guest speaker for one of my classes who said 98% of guys jerk off on a regular basis. So that sean is probably lying that he never does.